Anyone tried a panorama head with a Polarie?

[gregbradley]

I am interested in adding a panorama head to my Polarie.

It can be tricky at times to get the camera to the right angle to take some shots in a multiple image panorama sequence.

Also it would be nice to have click stops rather than estimating what is about right.

But I don't want to add too much weight and I am concerned the setup may be too much for the Polarie and make it unstable or overwhelm it.

Has anyone tried a pano head with a Polarie?

Greg.

[OzEclipse]

Greg,
Can't answer your pano head Q.

However I have seen pictures of Polarie setups with a counterweighted dec axis some even holding an ED80 refractor and many holding cameras. Some allow the polar scope to be used at the same time.

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/487916-lovejoy-with-135mm-lens-and-polarie/


http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=831081

http://www.hkastroforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=270076

Vixen upgraded the payload capacity some months after releasing the product. Nonetheless, be carefull about pushing the weight too far out in the direction of the polar axis.
A well balanced modest load using one of these dec axis/counterweight setups would put less stress than hanging weight out on a long cantilever.
Joe

[gregbradley]

Thanks Joe. I sent a message to Tommy to see if he still sells his balancing kit.

I ended up getting a Bushman Gobi panorama head. I will attach it to the ballhead which is on the Polarie which I will level first.

The Bushman Gobi only weighs 320grams and has a multiclick stop base and stops for the vertical rail which makes for easy assembly and finding the nodal point.

All the other pano heads are heavy like 1.1 to 1.3kg except for Really Right stuff which is more expensive and does not have a click stop rotator on either axis.

The Bushman gets 5 star reviews on Amazon.

http://bushman-panoramic.com/

As I will predominantly be using a Sony A7R2 and Zeiss Loxia 21mm F2.8 lens which together is fairly compact and reasonably light it probably will not need a counterbalance as I have had a Nikon D800e with a grip with 3 batteries plus the heavy Nikon 14-24mm lens on it with no problem.

You just have to make sure the thumbscrews are really tight.

And for anyone interested I found from research a Skywatcher polar scope illuminator that fits onto the polar scope of the Polarie as its difficult to shine a dull enough light to light up the reticle without either dazzling your dark sight or overwhelming the octans trapezium stars from view.

Greg.